Word Beats

In the mountains, there you feel free ! T.S.Eliot  After 2 years of suffocation and misery due to the pandemic, finally got a chance to revisit the mountains when I saw an ad by Mountain Academics in my runners group in social media. Having made few preliminary queries, I decided this is what I wanted to do and connected few people in my community TRITVAM and Sobha City. Gradually the team of 12 was formed and we boarded flights and trains to arrive in Chandigarh on 21st Sep 2022.  The route :  There is one more map that shows various valleys we encountered on the way..... Arrival : Sep 20th  Kochi-Chandigarh flight was comfortable. So was the stay at Holiday Inn Chandigarh. Got introduced to the team and party started at hotel room straightaway ! Narayanan Kutty from Sobha, Pady & Ambika from Tritvam joined me and my wife Suma from Kochi, Shaju joined from Abudhabi, George and Shirley from Wayanad. Day 1 Sep 21: Chandigarh to Narkanda We started a...

This was my first time to witness the joyful and vibrant celebrations of  Bahrain national day. Moreover COVID19 forced us to be within the country whole year and trekking on the mountains was not possible. So I decided to make use of the opportunity and explore Bahrain during national day holidays. I had read about the Pearling Trail last year but my plans to visit the trail were aborted due to the pandemic and the holidays for National day made the perfect setting to this exploration.  Bahrain has rich tradition and culture not much known outside the kingdom. The history and importance of pearl probably made the creators of the trail choose the name.  Origin of Name and a bit of history of Bahrain : Bahrayn  is the  dual form  of Arabic  bahr  ("sea"), so  al-Bahrayn  originally means "the two seas", It remains disputed which "two seas" the name  Bahrayn  originally refers to.  Today, Bahrain's "two seas" are generally t...

Great things are done when men and mountains meet-William Blake Having done few treks in India and Nepal, I was looking forward to another one this year when Murali suggested Gosaikund. I didn’t have to think twice after making few checks on the Google about the place and weather. When the Himalayas beckon, you just succumb ! The route : The Nepal map below shows the location of Langtang region ( box 8)   we trekked with respect to other regions and peaks. While trekking, our plan was to stay at following locations : Start- Katmandu -1200m Day-1 Thulo Barkhu-1860m Day-2 Thulo Syabru-2230m Day-3 Sing Gompa-3327m Day-4 Gosaikunda-4425m Day-5 Gopte-3457m Day-6 Kutumsangu-2567m Day-7 Chisapani-2150m End-Katmandu -1200m

A memorable trek through the gateway to God and nature When Praveen’s daughter Gopika read about the Lord Curzon trek route in the heart of Himalayas, she wouldn’t have thought these pages would ignite the fire in the belly of a group of 6 middle aged persons including her dad with no trekking experience to attempt this trek! The desire to trek on Himalayas started growing day by day and after few chats Praveen had with Sasi and Anand during the routine evening walk. The plan was finally hatched with the help of Google Guru in the month of May 2014. After careful study of several options, a 4 day trek by GIO Adventure was chosen. GIO conducts several adventure activities like trekking, rafting etc. on the Himalayas. The package we selected was quite cost effective as they offered 6 days of fun for just Rs 11,350 including two way transport between start point of trek and Hardwar. Having decided on the trek route and organizer of the trek, the next task was to pick the...